Participants, Materials, and Procedure

In a classroom study, 271 high-school students distributed over 12 pre-existing groups (i.e., their Dutch language and literature classes) listened to five out of 24 versions of the same four Dutch cabaret songs, written and performed by the author. All heard one song spoken, one song vocalized (i.e. sung a cappella with lalala as the only lyrics), one a cappella (sung a cappella with lyrics), and one complete (sung with accompaniment); in addition, they heard either an accompaniment-only version of the song they heard spoken, or an accompanied speech version of the song they heard vocalized. After each track they filled out a questionnaire, mainly consisting of Likert-scale items, seven of which were asked for music and lyrics separately. For more details concerning participants, materials and procedure, see Schotanus (2020a), and for songs (lead sheets and recordings) and questionnaires, see Schotanus (2017).

In a laboratory study, 24 adults listened individually to four of the same song versions. They heard one song spoken, one vocalized, one a cappella, and one complete. They listened to the tracks in a sound-proof booth, while both EEG and SCR measures were taken. For more details concerning participants and procedure, see Schotanus, Eekhof, and Willems (2018), and for the results of the EEG measures, see Schotanus, Eekhof, and Willems (2018), and Schotanus (2020b, 166-188).

Analyses

The data were reanalysed as follows. A factor analysis similar to the factor analysis conducted in Schotanus, Eekhof and Willems (2018) was conducted on both datasets, except that the items concerning poetic quality were excluded, as these were different across the two studies. Second, the emotion ratings were reanalysed for both datasets because several conditions and one variable (nagging quality) had to be excluded from the classroom data, and one variable (calming quality) had to be excluded from the laboratory data. In addition, two small sets of variables from the classroom study (i.e., those concerning voiceless intervals and those concerning repetition) were reanalysed excluding the data concerning accompanied-speech and accompaniment-only versions.

As was the case in Schotanus (2020a), Principal Axis factor analyses were conducted with oblique rotation (direct oblimin), and factor scores were saved following the Anderson-Rubin method. Random intercepts were estimated for group, song and participant*group in mixed-model regressions concerning classroom data, and for participant and song in regressions concerning laboratory data.

Factor analyses

The factor analyses concerning emotions, voiceless intervals, and repetitions show similar results across studies (see Table 1). However, those concerning the 15 text-related items show differences (see Table 2).

As Table 2 shows, both models consist of four factors, one of which seems to be clustered around listening comfort (a combination of not tiring and not boring), one around heaviness, one around voice quality and one around clearness (a combination of intelligibility and comprehensibility). However, most of these factors are coloured quite differently across the two studies by factor loadings from other variables. For example, the first factor is coloured towards interesting content in the classroom study, and towards a positive mood in the laboratory study. Conversely, the heaviness in the second factor is coloured towards a negative mood in the classroom study, and towards sad content in the laboratory study. Furthermore, Clearness, is associated with several other positive qualities, particularly in the laboratory study. As a result, there is no factor that can clearly be associated with attention or appreciation for the lyrics.

Regarding the mean factor scores per condition (see Table 3), the factors Feeling upbeat, Emotional load, Distraction by voiceless intervals and Meaningfulness of repetitions show similar, largely significant patterns, as in Schotanus (2020a). These results strengthen various conclusions in Schotanus (2020) that Lee (2020) has cast doubt upon: a track turns out to be more Feeling upbeat if there is relatively 'more' music in it, which is in line with earlier research; Emotional load seems to be a content-related variable that is more likely to be associated with lyrics than with instrumental music, although music can convey Emotional load; this partly represents a positively-valued aspect of sadness that can be distinguished from the traditional negatively-valued low-energy aspect, partly represented by the inverse of feeling upbeat; even in a-cappella versions, listeners rate the music significantly different from the lyrics; silences are experienced as more distracting than instrumental interplays; verbatim repetitions of words are perceived as less superfluous and more meaningful when they are sung instead of spoken, particularly when accompaniment is present; and both the emotion ratings and the ratings of the emotional meaning of verbatim verbal repetitions show that the emotional meaning of the song lyrics within this experiment are interpreted more in line with the lyricist's intentions than the spoken ones (see Schotanus 2020a for references and discussion).

The results for the other factors are less easy to interpret. Several variables were clearly not rated similarly across studies. Additionally, the exclusion of items evaluating the quality of the lyrics has weakened the model, as fewer factors are significant right now. Yet, the results support the assumption that the differences in the results for the two studies, observed in Schotanus (2020a), are due to different ratings.